


The Hard Part About Playing Chicken Is Knowing When To Flinch

by misbegotten



Category: Ocean's 8 (2018), Ocean's Eleven Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Background Lou Miller/Debbie Ocean, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-13 22:52:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17496893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misbegotten/pseuds/misbegotten
Summary: Rusty is not lacking in courage. But try telling that to Tess and Debbie. (Set post-Ocean's 8)





	The Hard Part About Playing Chicken Is Knowing When To Flinch

"Robert," Tess starts, like he's in trouble and she's his mother.

Rusty doesn't do that dynamic, so he stuffs a jalapeno popper in his mouth and tries to smile. Unfortunately the popper is bigger than he anticipated and he spends far too much time trying to chew it. Still, Tess gets this look on her face like Rusty is beyond words.

That's fine by him. He doesn't want to talk about the pack of uncut diamonds in his pocket anyway.

The waitress comes back with his order of nachos, which is a natural break in the conversation. Or absence of conversation.

"Debbie," Tess says, after the waitress has checked whether Rusty needs another drink, another appetizer, or another look at her cleavage.

"No," Rusty replies, sipping his margarita. "We're not talking about Debbie."

Tess rolls her eyes. "What else would you like to talk about?"

The list of things that Rusty wants to discuss with Tess right now is dangerously limited. "Fine. Let's talk about Debbie." The nachos are disappointing, he finds. He eats another one.

"What are we going to tell her?" 

Rusty flicks a bit of pico de gallo off a soft chip and it lands, of course, on his shirt. He frowns at the stain it leaves behind after he's wiped at it with the paper napkin. "We're not going to tell her anything. I'll tell Lou. Lou will tell Debbie."

Tess wrinkles her nose. It's probably endearing to Danny. It makes Rusty feel like he didn't wear enough deodorant. "I know what you're going to say. And it's not--"

"It's mean," she says flatly.

"It's practical," he suggests. She's not going to go for it, Rusty knows.

"She's his sister."

"The last time she saw Danny, she stole his watch."

"She's his _sister_ ," Tess says, with slightly different intonation. It speaks volumes. _Of course she did,_ it says. And, _this is Debbie_. And, _she's family_. 

It's really annoying how Tess can manage her end of the debate with one word.

"She's--"

Rusty raises a hand in capitulation. "You're right. You're right." He sighs. "I'll talk to Debbie."

*

Rusty doesn't talk to Debbie. He calls Linus instead. This is later, after Tess has let him escape to his hotel room.

"I'm not wearing pants," he announces into the phone.

Linus chokes slightly. "Jesus, Rusty. What if my mom had answered?"

"Your mom answers your cell phone?"

There's an embarrassed pause. "No," Linus says. "I just meant... Jesus." There's the crinkle of fabric and Linus is obviously trying to juggle the phone and pull off his clothes at the same time. "Just a sec." 

Rusty contemplates the hotel room ceiling for a long moment, then thinks about brushing his teeth. He files that for later, but dental hygiene is important. He stretches out his legs and wriggles his toes. There's the start of a hole in his left sock.

"Okay, okay," Linus interrupts his musing. Linus' voice, a little throaty, suddenly comes more clearly down the line. "What do you want to do?"

"Talk about Debbie," Rusty says.

There's a long silence. Finally, Linus says, "You're actually wearing pants right now, aren't you."

Rusty shrugs.

"Rusty," Linus says with a hint of bite. "I can't hear you shrugging."

"You obviously can," Rusty points out. "But yeah, I was just fucking with you."

Linus mutters something about uncomplimentary about Rusty and fucking, and hangs up the phone. 

*

Finding Lou isn't too hard. Or, at least, Rusty enjoys the drive and the adventure. Lou's pulling into the gas station as Rusty finishes topping off the tank of his car. 

"Where the fuck have you been?" she asks. Lou tosses her helmet neatly into the backseat of his convertible and nods toward the convenience store. "Want me to buy you a drink?"

It's a Sunday, and they don't sell liquor on Sundays. That's how Rusty ends up drinking bottled iced tea on the side of the road in nowhere Florida. "This is uncivilized," he complains.

"Yeah," Lou grins, taking another swig. "We can't buy sex toys until after 6 PM, either."

"Well damn, Lou," Rusty says. "If I'd known you'd consider it..."

Lou gives him that look. She's always had his number. "Talk to Danny," she suggests mildly. She raises a hand to block some of the glare from the relentless sun, watches a little girl in a Mickey Mouse shirt run from the shop to a dirt-covered minivan, then finally looks back at Rusty. "So where is he, anyway?"

Rusty shrugs. "He's dead." The iced tea is pale and needs a shot of vodka. And tequila, and rum, triple sec, and gin. "Or, you know, not. It's complicated."

Lou lowers her hand and raises her face to the bright light. She looks like a sun goddess. "You want me to tell Debbie that it's _complicated_?"

Rusty closes his eyes for a minute and watches the specks of light dance behind his eyelids. "Look, I came out to see you guys as a gesture--"

Lou flicks him on the shoulder with her empty bottle. "You didn't come to see 'us guys'. You came to see me." She shakes her head mournfully. "Chickenshit."

Rusty doesn't deny it. Danny, he can handle. Debbie has always been hard to predict.

"Just tell her something. I dunno." He rubs a hand across his face. "I told Tess I'd have the conversation."

"Which you're not doing."

Rusty walks over to the trash can next to the gas pump, drops in his bottle, then goes back to the car. He wishes he'd bought a doughnut or something in the store, but in this heat it would have gone all squishy anyway. "Nice bike," he says. 

Lou pats it fondly. "Thanks. We've gone a lot of miles together." She fishes her helmet out of his car. "And you're still a chickenshit. Afraid of a _girl_ ," she says. Almost as fondly as she talked about the bike.

Rusty shakes his head and slides behind the steering wheel, which is nearly too hot to handle. "See you in the funny pages." He sketches off a wave.

"Chickenshit!" Lou bellows as he peels out of the parking lot.

*

"So what'd you do?" Linus asks. They're in a department store and Linus is trying on jeans. 

"See, this is the part of the con that nobody ever appreciates," Rusty says as Linus bounces first on one leg, then the other, stretching like he's about to run a marathon in denim. "Living like the little people."

"It's not a con," Linus points out. "I need jeans."

"So order them off Amazon like everybody else." Rusty shakes his head. Then he rotates his finger in the universal sign of _turn around_. "Let me see the back."

He stares at Linus' ass for a while before he nods. "Yeah, they're good." Then he sticks a toothpick in his mouth and reflects on his visit with Lou. "And I didn't do anything."

Linus goes back into the changing room, shuffles around for a bit, and returns with his street clothes on. "So, you did exactly the opposite of what you were supposed to do."

Linus pays for the jeans while, at another counter, a guy is bellowing at the salesgirl that she didn't apply his 20% off coupon properly. The girl looks flustered, and Rusty feels bad for her. He lifts the guy's wallet on principle. 

Linus falls into step next to Rusty as they head into the depths of the mall in search of a cinnamon roll. "What're you going to tell Tess?"

"Tess isn't the boss of me," Rusty says. The words just hang there for a minute, until Linus quirks his lips.

"Right," he says. 

*

Later, as he's cleaning out his pockets, Rusty finds the diamonds gone and a note in a nearly-forgotten scrawl.

_Chickenshit_ , it reads. 

"You let Debbie pick my pocket?" he complains to Linus after he's hung up his clothes.

"Nah," Linus says, sliding between the sheets. "It was some other girl. Best hands I've ever seen."

Debbie's crew is back together. Great. Rusty lets out an exasperated sound. "You're supposed to have my back in cases like this."

"I've got your front," Linus says, in a way that is meant to sound smooth but really doesn't.

Rusty laughs. "If your mother could hear your mouth."

*

The next time Rusty calls Tess, she just makes clucking noises at him until he hangs up.


End file.
